The subject matter disclosed herein relates to semiconductor power devices and, more specifically, to super-junction (SJ) semiconductor power devices.
For semiconductor power devices, super-junction (also referred to as charge balance) designs offer several advantages. For example, super-junction devices demonstrate reduced resistance and reduced conduction losses per unit area relative to traditional unipolar device designs. However, the switching speed of super-junction devices utilizing floating regions depends on the recombination-generation rates of the carriers in the semiconductor material. For some semiconductor materials, such as wide band gap materials, the recombination-generation rates may be relatively low and may result in undesirable switching speeds. To increase the recombination-generation rates and the switching speed of such super-junction devices, point defects may be introduced into the semiconductor material. However, the point defects may increase the leakage current of the device. Accordingly, it may be desirable to develop super-junction device designs with floating regions that have high switching speed without substantially increasing the leakage current.